Ireland, the Euro and Capitalism's deepening crisis.

Times they are changing,

Irish Workers taking on the bailed out bankers.

It took me a while to come to grips with understanding how things worked. I could never have done this without understanding Marx' way of thinking. Marx explained that everything was always in a state of change and development. This applies to all societies and all aspects of all societies. This is a concept that is hated by capitalism and the ruling classes. They wish to believe and convince us that capitalism is the only system, that there is no alternative, that capitalism is fixed in place forever and will never change. And of course it flows from this that they and theirs will always be the rules. This is the conservative view, this is the reactionary view, so grin and bear it. It is the burden of the ruling capitalist class to make the masses recognize their place, to recognize that there is no alternative. Under Thatcher and Reagan they summed this concept up under the very effective four letter propaganda slogan "TINA." There Is No Alternative." This is a propagandist way of saying nothing can ever change. It was very effective.

But working people have to have a look at history and when we do we will see that this is a lie that things never change and it is a lie that There Is No Alternative. We have a TIAA. That is There Is An Alternative. Rather than things never changing, rather than there being no alternative, things are always changing and alternatives are being thrown up again and again. I remember back in the 1960'in Northern Ireland when they said nothing could ever change, I remember here in the US with the vicious racist murderous state when they said nothing could ever change. Well the youth went on the streets in both parts of the world and changed things. History shows that it is nonsense that things cannot change. History in fact shows the opposite; that is that everything is always in a stage of change and development.

But it is not enough to know that things change. We have to know how they change? Things do not change in a straight uninterrupted line. What happened is that the pressure for change builds up over time, struggles to express itself, builds and build until it can no longer be maintained and then in an explosive action bursts to the surface and breaks through. Things are changed. There is a shorthand for this. This explains that change takes place on a quantitative basis, then it builds and builds to where a qualitative point is reached and a change in quality then takes place. The example of water heating and heating until it reaches boiling point when it changes in quality into steam is the example most often used. The capitalist crisis is now getting so bad that it will force a qualititative change in the consciousness of the working class and the ations of the workinh class in the near future.

So where am I going with all this? Some years ago the main capitalist powers in Europe came together to facilitate inter European trade and be stronger against the USA. To this end they set up the European Union and the currency the euro. 150 years before Marx said that capitalism could not overcome the barriers of the nation states. In spite of the EU and EURO experiments this remains generally true. Marx has been proved generally true over the decades. However there have been examples where this has appeared to have been negated at least for a time.. The EU for example. When it came together and the euro was formed Marx was dead again for the umpth time it seemed. But now it is not looking so sure. Marx explains that laws express themselves generally in an interupted procss but they exert themselves again and again. Times are always a changing.

The big European capitalists will make a major effort to save the euro. The increased divisions in the European market, the currency wars that would ensue, the collapse of the currencies of the weakest economies, all these developments would lead to a major and even worse crisis than capitalism is in now. So they want to keep the euro together. However. And this is the however. Marx explained that there are contradictions in capitalism which are irresolvable, which cannot be overcome. He also explained that the capitalist system sometimes works behind the back of its own ruling class, that it it goes its own ways as its contradictions drag it here and there, and ultimately into crisis again.

So I think in spite of their best efforts the euro will break up. But before this happens capitalism will put up a major fight to preserve it. But in the long run its own contradictions will bring it down. This will probably a little into the future as capitalism battles to save the euro. But it seems to me inevitable in the long run. As Marx said capitalism cannot over come the boundary of the nation state. This will bring more suffering and crisis to the lives of working class people. Capitalism does not work.

Sean.